Thanks for running this T.

Disappointed not getting a podium finish. Early rounds ****ed me. This actually might be my worst NHL peehs showing ever.

I'm slipping, boys.

Also, I have no desire to wade into the NBA threads to lol @ their league, but thank God our product isn't a really bad parody of the WWE.

Adam, the new avatar disappoints me.

Seemed like, when possible, everyone was giving answers that involved their favorite team, and you have 5 of those; I don't see how you could finish last.

I root for half the league and they're all less lol than the Devils.

For real tho

One of your teams thought this and went out in 5 as a result.

After a few Crosby hacks and Brodeur flops there was no chance. Not to mention the Bryzgalols.

Also,

My date with hot waitress got postpwned until tomorrow, but I'm ghana bring her home and cook her a meal sprinkled with some swag so I ain't even mad.

The dream is dead, my friend.

Have the Red Wings landed JBo yet?

Holland is still making inquiries into Weber, Suter, and Parise first

A part of me thinks the nba hate coming from hockey fans is a little over the top and seems napoleon complex-esque, and I love basketball, but this crap going on in the nba now is so whack. It's become a parody

don't forget the sometimes racist subtext

Cook her dinner, so she can serve it to you? Sounds like a hot date.

The NBA is the little middle section of an NHL vs WWE Venn Diagram.

Cant forget that, youre right

thanks T.

ok, so id have won if i'd understood the wha/nhl undrafted all-star question? fu w/ a bag o dicks, T.

ALSO, 2nd place again ?

So I was in Vegas last week and met this dude from Vancouver there in the line of McDonald's at 5AM and we started talking about hockey and the conversation went something like this:

Me: You a Canucks fan?
Him: **** no, I hate the Canucks, I'm a die-hard Wings fan...

Me/Him: Detroit homerism ensues with us talking about the ****ty off-season

Turns out we both post on a Red Wings forum and that we actually knew each other through there.

Cool story bro?

edit: sort of turned into a long, rambly mess of a thing, sorry...

yeah i was gonna say something like this. a lot of the most talented players from even a young age (say 12-14) are among the dumbest, laziest, and least likely to be coachable. and i never really even played with any really good players, but most of those guys are aware that they're good from like age 5-10 or whatever, and develop egos due to the status of hockey here. and i mean, i've seen the delusions of grandeur from the parents of some of these kids, talking like it's some kind of lock that he'll play for the NHL Team X one day (not joking), when it's clear to everyone else how ridiculous a scenario that is. i'm talking guys who don't even end up playing junior anywhere meaningful.

so you can imagine what it's like when they're 14-16, getting drafted into the CHL, moving somewhere else to play (in a lot of cases), thinking they're on track to make the NHL maybe. so you can see how many of these guys might not take school too seriously, most of the top players i played with and knew didn't. then add in where in some places the community/schools can take the "kid gloves" approach to star athletes, so their idiocy is enabled. as a result a lot of them end up being uneducated, which is tragic if they were dumb to begin with.

basically in the end in a lot of cases you get dumb guys who might not understand, or care to, how to really play the game. they aren't terribly interested in strategy, gameplanning, listening to their coaches, and so on (save for the idiot savants who have an innate understanding of the game, but who are otherwise morons). and in rare cases you get guys who are good, but also smart, value education, care about understanding the game, do what they're told, etc.

so bring it back around to Gamblor's point, understanding the game, positional play, reading and reacting are all different skills than being a good passer, stickhandler, shooter, hitter, etc. and a lot of the best players i've known were kinda dumb, and bad at the first group of skills. is it coachable? yeah probably, but it's difficult to teach a person how to think, when it should just be instinct. if it's second nature, it might not be good enough because there just isn't enough time / space the higher you go.

i believe there is a lot of value in gaining skills from other sports to this end. guys who play Lacrosse, or basketball, or soccer (or football?) understand these kind of things better naturally imo.

no, you wouldn't've. and you were the only person to misunderstand it.

I don't understand this whole twitter campaign by #ThePlayers (lol cool hashtag, bros) trying to get sympathy from the public in their CBA negotiations. The public thinks both sides are rich as.sholes so shut the **** up and bring back our hockey.

They want people to threaten to not come back and to get the media narrative on their side - I do think they genuinely want to play.